The IEM (in ear monitors) Bible thread - a guide to help every musician

[Linus27]

On 11/03/2025 at 08:20, dave_bass5 said:

No problem, and good luck.  Might take a a while to adjust to them and find the right pair (i couldn’t get on at all with the KZ stuff), but once you do it’s like a lightbulb moment. 

 

Just an update from me. Tried out the Behringer P2 and the KZ ZS10 Pro headphones tonight at a local gig and they worked an absolute treat. I didn't mess around with the mix but just settled with the FOH mix so not perfect for what my preference would be but good enough that I played a bunch of songs no problem. I miss the ambient sound from on stage and the raw energy of a live stage sound but I also liked the clarity and quietness of wearing the headphones. Overall, a great success and not a bad £70 spent on a basic setup. The headphones were really comfortable out of the box as well which I wasn't expecting.

 

[mcnach]

Has anybody tried one of those little lavalier mics, so that one can use it to hear other people -but with the ability to switch it on/off at will-? 

[warwickhunt]

47 minutes ago, mcnach said:

Has anybody tried one of those little lavalier mics, so that one can use it to hear other people -but with the ability to switch it on/off at will-? 

 

You can buy a footswitch that when depressed cuts the vocal mic to FOH but can still transmit to all/any IE.  Not sure what you call them but our band leader had one; he could step on the switch mid song and let us know if we were going to change next song etc.

[EBS_freak]

6 hours ago, warwickhunt said:

 

You can buy a footswitch that when depressed cuts the vocal mic to FOH but can still transmit to all/any IE.  Not sure what you call them but our band leader had one; he could step on the switch mid song and let us know if we were going to change next song etc.

Talkback mic/MD mic/God mic

 

Switch is usually a A B switch to 2 channels on the desk, (1 to front of house, 2nd to aux feeds only) or a MIDI switch which effectively kills foh but being pre fader allows the signal to still pass to the auxes.

 

2 channels is nice as it allows you to have 2 different levels for when the MD is singing vs louder for instruction.

[shoulderpet]

Hi all, I am a complete noob to iem (I know nothing at all about them) I currently use ear plugs when I play gigs, are there any iem's that will do the job of enabling me to hear myself but also protect my hearing?

 

Or am I better off just sticking with ear plugs and eq'ing in some extra mids to enable me to hear myself better? 

 

Thank you

[EBS_freak]

First up - have you read the opening posts. You need to get your head around how this stuff works first. Happy to help, but your question at the moment is not at all what you want to be doing as your EQing to hear yourself better is a) going to make your bass not sound how it should to the audience b) is effectively just turning up the volume and defeating the point of what your ear plugs are meant to be doing!

 

If you are not wanting to plug into anything and have a standalone solution (e.g. volume controllable ear plugs), I refer you to this section in the opening post - 

 

If you haven't got a desk or aux available to you, you can try using the above with a field recorder (e.g. a Zoom recorder - others are available). See section 3.4.

[police squad]

On 15/03/2025 at 00:39, Linus27 said:

 

Just an update from me. Tried out the Behringer P2 and the KZ ZS10 Pro headphones tonight at a local gig and they worked an absolute treat. I didn't mess around with the mix but just settled with the FOH mix so not perfect for what my preference would be but good enough that I played a bunch of songs no problem. I miss the ambient sound from on stage and the raw energy of a live stage sound but I also liked the clarity and quietness of wearing the headphones. Overall, a great success and not a bad £70 spent on a basic setup. The headphones were really comfortable out of the box as well which I wasn't expecting.

 

this is actually how I gig mostly

As the singer in 2 bands, I like the whole mix so I can make sure my voice sits in the right place, so I come out the headphone socket

Both bands have everything in the pa, so I get a great sound

I did a bass only gig last week (U2 Tribute) and we only had time for a line check, I got a kind of mix in my IEMs but not what I wanted.

The out front sound was ace, just not enough time to sort the IEM mix properly (and there's no way I was going to take them out)

[MrPring]

Hey folks posted this in its own thread but will give it a go here as well;

 

Evening gang. 

 

Finally convinced the band to make the shift to in ears so we've got ourselves a mixer (Soundcraft u24i) and have all got P2s and some IEMS (as well as a full set of mics and cables). 

 

I'm now ampless and even the drummer is thinking of going to an electric kit but the 2 guitarists are not looking to ditch their amps just yet.

 

I've explained the benefits etc but their excuse is they'll not be able to get feedback at low volumes or if they go ampless. I'm a bit stumped on how to handle this. We've always been a ridiculously loud band but this was fine as we always played bigger venues so had powerful PAs and good monitoring. We've had a 5 year break and now on the comeback trail but now back to playing small venues hence the shift. 

 

Is it a case of just stepping on a drive pedal or two (whilst maintaining volume) to achieve this feedback? It's not a massive part of our show but at the start and end of some songs we do this for effect. 

 

Anyone come up against similar reluctance or anything else that might come up?

 

Any help greatly appreciated. 

[WalMan]

Digitech Freqout

 

maybe something like this? Guitarist in my new wave/punky band has one and it seems to work really well. There is a version of something similar in the Helix.

[mcnach]

16 minutes ago, WalMan said:

Digitech Freqout

 

maybe something like this? Guitarist in my new wave/punky band has one and it seems to work really well. There is a version of something similar in the Helix.

 

I was going to suggest this. I have one, it's great. It only does one thing, but it does it very well in a very controllable manner.

[GrahamLeeds]

So....some probably pretty obvious questions coming...

I've read the start of the thread but am drowning in info...

We are a 9-10 piece band who will be doing a few dates in small concert venues.

2xGuitar and bass all have classic backline.

Then drums, keys, 2xStrings, 3xVocals on top.

 

We will have some backing tracks through the PA and will need clicks, and everyone will almost certainly need different IEM mixes.

 

The thought of 9 IEM cables on stage on top of the existing ones is pushing us towards wireless but the cost looks to be 10x?

(Behringer P2 vs UL1000)

 

Are there any recommendations on the gear needed to get this sorted?

I would say as cheaply as possible but reliability and good sound is more important.

 

Any advice on what mixers or other gear would be needed to cope with at least 10 musicians?

 

Very grateful for any hints...

 

[EBS_freak]

Stereo or mono?

 

And it sounds like you will need a split if running with a house desk.

 

Figure out who absolutely can't be wired. For example, keys and drums could safely be wired feeds.

 

Wireless you are opening yourself up to a load of chaos unless you absolutely know what you are doing. The UL1000 for example, you'll only be able to run 3-4 of those in stereo legally. If it does the focus mode (where you can get two mono feeds out of one transmitter and one receiver) - you'll get 6-8. I wouldn't be touching a Ch70 system for that size of band unless you can bail out onto wired. Also, I would hazard a guess the UL1000 isn't going to have the best compander - so probably not going to sound that great. (Not that I've tried one... but I certainly know the trend... and theres a reason why EW300s and PSM900s cost what they do).

[EBS_freak]

PS - be prepared to spend quite a significant amount of money for that sized band.

[GrahamLeeds]

Thanks, not exactly what we needed to hear 🙂😐

I guess mono will be OK, it will all be through a house desk which will all be different...

We absolutely don't know what we are doing so maybe inexperience and cost will push us to wired...looking at EW300/PSM900, both are going to be too expensive for the short term.

 

If we keep it simple and just go wired I guess the P2 is the best way forward from what I've read?

So Instrument->splitter->mixer->IEMs?

 

Back to the start of the thread for me to read some more 🙂

 

Thanks for the advice.

[warwickhunt]

17 hours ago, GrahamLeeds said:

So....some probably pretty obvious questions coming...

I've read the start of the thread but am drowning in info...

We are a 9-10 piece band who will be doing a few dates in small concert venues.

2xGuitar and bass all have classic backline.

Then drums, keys, 2xStrings, 3xVocals on top.

 

We will have some backing tracks through the PA and will need clicks, and everyone will almost certainly need different IEM mixes.

 

The thought of 9 IEM cables on stage on top of the existing ones is pushing us towards wireless but the cost looks to be 10x?

(Behringer P2 vs UL1000)

 

Are there any recommendations on the gear needed to get this sorted?

I would say as cheaply as possible but reliability and good sound is more important.

 

Any advice on what mixers or other gear would be needed to cope with at least 10 musicians?

 

Very grateful for any hints...

 

 

Are you talking about the band processing all of the feeds and splitting them; 1 split sent to the FOH system/engineer and other split going to a desk/processor that you all then sort your own mixes out?  

 

We are doing this and it isn't uncommon BUT we (6 piece band) are looking at £1500 just to split/process our feeds (inc cables).  All band members have their own IEM systems to connect to our mix/processor (Sennheiser, Xvive MiPro), so that isn't factored into the budget but would likely be another £2800.

[GrahamLeeds]

I think to include the backing tracks and clicks and have individual mixes we need to do that?

We can't rely on FOH sorting out all our mixes I think since some venues are pretty basic and may not have that kind of knowledge.

I was looking at the kind of set up in this image:

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/setting-up-iem-gigs.1371246/#post-21946840

 

Sounds pretty similar to what you are doing?

 

[warwickhunt]

Exactly that and it's not an uncommon config.  We've done gigs where we turn up (no backline) and present our 5 vocals, 4 drums, 6 instruments, 1 drum trigger and requiring 6 IEM feeds and venues have been overwhelmed, the IE always suffers; which is a mare if you have NO backline.

[Buddster]

I think you'd be hard pressed to find many smaller venues with 10 separate aux feeds for you all to have your our mix. 

You may need to group people's feeds together and compromise. 

[GrahamLeeds]

7 minutes ago, warwickhunt said:

Exactly that and it's not an uncommon config.  We've done gigs where we turn up (no backline) and present our 5 vocals, 4 drums, 6 instruments, 1 drum trigger and requiring 6 IEM feeds and venues have been overwhelmed, the IE always suffers; which is a mare if you have NO backline.

Great, will look into this more. Is this even with your own mixer and splitter?

[GrahamLeeds]

5 minutes ago, Buddster said:

I think you'd be hard pressed to find many smaller venues with 10 separate aux feeds for you all to have your our mix. 

You may need to group people's feeds together and compromise. 

Should be OK for that - guitars and bass need the same and I guess vocals will need similar mixes.

[Muppet]

Are you using a Behringer desk? Is using Ultranet and P16Ms (or now P16 -HQ as they are now called) a viable option? 

[warwickhunt]

8 minutes ago, GrahamLeeds said:

Great, will look into this more. Is this even with your own mixer and splitter?

 

Not purchased as yet, we are looking at getting our own X32 and pair of 8 splitters; we already own our own individual IEM systems.  Be sure to budget for the leads/connects/snake(s)!  

 

I believe there's actually a system for sale here on BC.

[mcnach]

2 hours ago, warwickhunt said:

Exactly that and it's not an uncommon config.  We've done gigs where we turn up (no backline) and present our 5 vocals, 4 drums, 6 instruments, 1 drum trigger and requiring 6 IEM feeds and venues have been overwhelmed, the IE always suffers; which is a mare if you have NO backline.

 

Apart from that, which is a very good reason to have your own system, is that if you have your own mixer for IEMs you can save the mixes as presets and after the first few gigs there's very little to change. It makes setting up really simple.

 

 

 

[mcnach]

2 hours ago, GrahamLeeds said:

Great, will look into this more. Is this even with your own mixer and splitter?

 

If you have your own mixer and splitter then the sound person deals with the FOH and they don't have to bother with the monitors, so that makes life easier for them.

You control your own mix, which in turns makes it easier for you, as you can tweak as much as you like without asking anybody else for help. You can save your mix as a preset and next time just call the preset and you're ready to go. You might still want to change something (people may use different instruments from gig to gig or whatever) but you'll have a very good starting point.

 

[mcnach]

2 hours ago, GrahamLeeds said:

Should be OK for that - guitars and bass need the same and I guess vocals will need similar mixes.

 

You can compromise, but people tend to like a bit more of themselves than everybody else. Invest in a suitable digital mixer with enough outs and you'll have no issues.

 

The Behringer units (X18, X32) also use 'Ultranet' which does not use the aux outputs. You could buy something like a Behringer P16HQ (around £140) which is your personal 16 track mixer. I like that more than using an app on my phone because of the physical controls. It just makes it easier to me. The XR18 is only around £400. The XR32 rack version is about £700 but it's far more expandable and has a little screen on the unit itself which can be handy too.